LIBRARY—LOOKOUTAMERICA

As America declines as an industrial power, I can't blame you for trying to boost our spirits with a rose-colored editorial (``American Know-How,'' Journal-World, Dec. 27), but at this point in our country's history it may be more beneficial to face the bald truth: not only didn't we kill the Gulf oil fires, but we no longer have a lock on the world's technology.

Apparently you, (and most of the other U.S. newspapers) missed it, but earlier this year Time magazine ran an article explaining how the Kuwaiti oil field fires were finally subdued . . . and it wasn't due to American know-how, but Eastern European.

Red Adair and company were making slow progress until somebody brought in jet engine-powered machines, developed in Hungary, that literally blew out the flames.

Most of us forget that the American Constitution says: "All men are created equal'' . . . not "All Americans. . .''

It's time we recognized the reality that other nationalities possess intelligence and drive equal to ours.

A pep band is great but it can't make a complacent team a winner. Look out America . . . here comes the rest of the world.